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Generally, I do not subject myself to large quantities of beef. An occasional burger or beef stir-fry will insert itself between my preferences for fish, chicken, pork, duck, etc. Sometimes though, when especially ravenous after a long day, I crave as much of the cow as they will put on my plate. I want nothing more than a big, juicy steak, preferably with some sort of Gorgonzola (my poor, poor arteries) and creamy mashed potatoes.

This weekend, my family was in town, including my two tall sisters (6′ and 5’9″ respectively) and my equally tall mother. After walking around Manhattan all day on Saturday and some serious shopping, we had worked up quite an appetite. Since we were going to Joyce Dance Theater on Saturday night, we wanted some sort of steakhouse in the Chelsea area. The concierge at their hotel recommended Frank’s, and told me it was “very reasonable” for my frugal-minded family. It was not. The cheapest meal was well over $30, as the sides were also ala carte.Since we were at a famed steakhouse, we all ordered Petit Mignon. The above is a good illustration of what we got. A fine piece of beef like MIGNON should always be prepared medium rare. Anything else and you are ruining the steak. J* and my steaks (yep, he was meeting the fam) were very far from medium rare. They were dry and flavorless, and made me want to cry as I begrudgingly ate my money away now that we had no time to order anything else before the show. My mother and sister’s medium steaks had absolutely no pink. What a crime!

Seriously, how does this happen? It’s called a meat thermometer! Adding insult to injury was the fact that the restaurant was almost empty as we dined. What were they busy doing back there? In my opinion, if you are spending a lot of money for a good steak, you should NEVER have to pay for a hockey puck. We fought our way to $50 off the bill, but that was the extent of it. The waiters saw me taking pictures of the steaks, but unfortunately none of them came out for this post.